Leon Salomon - June 18, 1990

Restrictions

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Were there any restrictions placed on Jews, on your family, suffered from rationing, was there a curfew, what kinds of things?

Well, there was restrictions, not just for Jews, but for Poles too, the restrictions they had, we had to stay in line for bread, the Jews, of course, were pointed out a little bit more, but no major restrictions. At night you couldn't go out, of course, but nothing drastic.

What sorts of abuses do you remember?

Well, to go clean the streets and then a short while afterward, they confiscated all the businesses; this was about a week later. We go out and there was a lock on the door with their lock and stamp, what do you call it, a seal, yeah, with a special seal, a evict seal and we couldn't touch anything. Not the way it was, this was German property, and this was done to all the Jewish businesses, so slowly we started to getting disgraced more and more.

Did you ever get any help from any of the soldiers, or any of your neighbors?

No, I have to mention about one particular time when the store was opened, for the first few weeks the store was opened, for two or three weeks I believe. And many Polish customers came in and some of them wanted to get things for nothing, whatever may be the case, I remember one German soldier, an older one, obviously he must have been at that time 50 or maybe more, it looks like he was in the first World War too, in the same town and he actually stood up and he chased them all out and he didn't allow actually, he was actually preserving or saving the store, yes.

Any other incidents like that?

Well, I have another incident is in 1941 this was in town of Kobylnik, where the Russian/German war started, and the German soldiers went through and they throwing, some of them were throwing bread to the population. My sister caught a bread and he says, share it, just cut it in half, and she asked one a question, "Do you people want that war?" And he said to her, "Don't talk about this," that's it.